América: The Epic Story of Spanish North America, 1493-1898 by Robert Goodwin

Author:Robert Goodwin [Goodwin, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781632867247
Google: 576EDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

HARD ROAD TO PARADISE

ARIZONA & CALIFORNIA

In lands that have been little explored and have few major landmarks, it is no great wonder that people get lost.

—JUAN BAUTISTA DE ANZA

Juan Bautista de Anza and Father Francisco Garcés planned to head directly overland toward the confluence of the Gila and Colorado rivers as the first stage in establishing a route to Alta California. But as they were mustering the expedition at Tubac, in the fall of 1773, Apache raiders ran off 130 horses that were grazing near the presidio. As a result, Anza set out on New Year’s Day 1774 to travel through the settled valleys of northern Sonora, where he could pick up replacement animals as he went.1 He was also keen to meet a Cochimí from Baja, Sebastián Tarabal, who had been part of Portolá’s original overland expedition to San Diego. Tarabal had appeared at the mission of El Altar, in Sonora, during the Christmas festivities with a tragic but fascinating story.2

Having briefly settled at San Gabriel, the original mission at Los Angeles, Tarabal and his family felt homesick and tried to go overland to Baja, managing to cross the Sierra Nevada in winter, but then got lost in the vast sea of sand known as the Algodones Dunes. Only Tarabal survived. He was rescued by Olleyquotequiebe, the friendly Yuma chief, who sent him to El Altar. Tarabal was terrified that he would be punished for absconding from San Gabriel, but instead Anza welcomed him as a valuable guide.3

From El Altar, the expedition headed northwest to Sonoita, then followed the river west, almost parallel with the modern border, to El Carrizal, where they headed north into modern U.S. territory at Organ Pipe National Monument, just northeast of the spectacular volcanic peaks and cinder cones of Pinacate. Garcés was worried when the mules and the cattle found crossing a short stretch of sand hard going, for he, like Tarabal, knew the Algodones Dunes lay ahead.

They found little water at Heart Tank and carried on to “six [natural] tanks filled with good rainwater” in the Cabeza Prieta hills, where they hunted the desert’s bighorn sheep. Anza rode across rocky ground nearby that he guessed “must be hollow because the horses’ hooves made a sound like a pumpkin.” He reported that the Pápago habitually piled up the horns of dead sheep on that very spot and had urged the Spaniards to do the same “to stop the air escaping … and causing trouble for everyone.”4 The expedition continued north, stopping at watering holes in the arroyo that runs into the Gila River at Wellton. From there, Anza headed west into the Gila hills and dropped down to the verdant cool of the cottonwood groves along the riverbanks. The great bulk of Mount San Jacinto rose ahead of them in the far distance.

They were warmly welcomed by the Yumas, somewhere near where I-8 runs south of the Kofa Wildlife Refuge, and “at three in the afternoon we descended to the Gila River accompanied

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